diff --git a/doc/dev-reference/compilation.rst b/doc/dev-reference/compilation.rst
index e78552b40..205b7348b 100644
--- a/doc/dev-reference/compilation.rst
+++ b/doc/dev-reference/compilation.rst
@@ -110,8 +110,8 @@ Hyperscan needs to locate the end position of the input expression via clearly
 knowing each literal's length, not by simply identifying character ``\0`` of a
 string.
 
-Supported flags: :c:member:`HS_FLAG_CASELESS`, :c:member:`HS_FLAG_MULTILINE`,
-:c:member:`HS_FLAG_SINGLEMATCH`, :c:member:`HS_FLAG_SOM_LEFTMOST`.
+Supported flags: :c:member:`HS_FLAG_CASELESS`, :c:member:`HS_FLAG_SINGLEMATCH`,
+:c:member:`HS_FLAG_SOM_LEFTMOST`.
 
 .. note:: We don't support literal compilation API with :ref:`extparam`. And
           for runtime implementation, traditional runtime APIs can still be
diff --git a/src/compiler/compiler.cpp b/src/compiler/compiler.cpp
index de6909e76..666eefc9c 100644
--- a/src/compiler/compiler.cpp
+++ b/src/compiler/compiler.cpp
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2015-2019, Intel Corporation
+ * Copyright (c) 2015-2020, Intel Corporation
  *
  * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
  * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ ParsedLitExpression::ParsedLitExpression(unsigned index_in,
     : expr(index_in, false, flags & HS_FLAG_SINGLEMATCH, false, false,
            SOM_NONE, report, 0, MAX_OFFSET, 0, 0, 0, false) {
     // For pure literal expression, below 'HS_FLAG_'s are unuseful:
-    // DOTALL/ALLOWEMPTY/UTF8/UCP/PREFILTER/COMBINATION/QUIET
+    // DOTALL/ALLOWEMPTY/UTF8/UCP/PREFILTER/COMBINATION/QUIET/MULTILINE
 
     if (flags & ~HS_FLAG_ALL) {
         DEBUG_PRINTF("Unrecognised flag, flags=%u.\n", flags);
@@ -409,12 +409,11 @@ void addLitExpression(NG &ng, unsigned index, const char *expression,
     // filter out flags not supported by pure literal API.
     u64a not_supported = HS_FLAG_DOTALL | HS_FLAG_ALLOWEMPTY | HS_FLAG_UTF8 |
                          HS_FLAG_UCP | HS_FLAG_PREFILTER | HS_FLAG_COMBINATION |
-                         HS_FLAG_QUIET;
+                         HS_FLAG_QUIET | HS_FLAG_MULTILINE;
 
     if (flags & not_supported) {
-        throw CompileError("Only HS_FLAG_CASELESS, HS_FLAG_MULTILINE, "
-                           "HS_FLAG_SINGLEMATCH and HS_FLAG_SOM_LEFTMOST are "
-                           "supported in literal API.");
+        throw CompileError("Only HS_FLAG_CASELESS, HS_FLAG_SINGLEMATCH and "
+                           "HS_FLAG_SOM_LEFTMOST are supported in literal API.");
     }
 
     // This expression must be a pure literal, we can build ue2_literal
diff --git a/src/hs_compile.h b/src/hs_compile.h
index 8f48a7925..081d46387 100644
--- a/src/hs_compile.h
+++ b/src/hs_compile.h
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2015-2019, Intel Corporation
+ * Copyright (c) 2015-2020, Intel Corporation
  *
  * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
  * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
@@ -563,7 +563,6 @@ hs_error_t HS_CDECL hs_compile_ext_multi(const char *const *expressions,
  *      be used by ORing them together. Compared to @ref hs_compile(), fewer
  *      valid values are provided:
  *       - HS_FLAG_CASELESS - Matching will be performed case-insensitively.
- *       - HS_FLAG_MULTILINE - `^` and `$` anchors match any newlines in data.
  *       - HS_FLAG_SINGLEMATCH - Only one match will be generated for the
  *                               expression per stream.
  *       - HS_FLAG_SOM_LEFTMOST - Report the leftmost start of match offset
@@ -637,7 +636,6 @@ hs_error_t HS_CDECL hs_compile_lit(const char *expression, unsigned flags,
  *      in place of an array will set the flags value for all patterns to zero.
  *      Compared to @ref hs_compile_multi(), fewer valid values are provided:
  *       - HS_FLAG_CASELESS - Matching will be performed case-insensitively.
- *       - HS_FLAG_MULTILINE - `^` and `$` anchors match any newlines in data.
  *       - HS_FLAG_SINGLEMATCH - Only one match will be generated for the
  *                               expression per stream.
  *       - HS_FLAG_SOM_LEFTMOST - Report the leftmost start of match offset